Iron Maiden Frontman Bruce Dickinson Loses Airline Pilot Job

If Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson was considering making a move towards retiring from touring, like his country mates in Judas Priest, he may want to re-evaluate. The airline he has been working for as a pilot, Astraeus Airlines, has just gone under.

Dickinson was flying 250 passengers from Jeddah International Airport in Saudi Arabia to Manchester, England, when he found out that the company had been ordered to cease operations, effective immediately. The UK charter company blamed its collapse on "lower than expected levels of business during the summer, a lack of contracts for winter 2011-2012 and some extremely bad luck with a number of technical issues," reported the UK Daily Mail.

Dickinson earned his commercial pilot's license in the '90s and subsequently went to work for Astraeus as a Boeing 757 Captain. Iron Maiden used the airline -- which it called Ed Force One (after its zombie mascot Eddie) -- to travel from gig to gig for tours between 2008 and 2011. Flying, instead of driving, enabled the band to fit the musicians, crew and rig onto one vehicle, and Dickinson helmed the ship.

"As a professional pilot and a professional singer with Iron Maiden, there was no doubt that Astraeus Airlines were the people for the job," Dickinson said. "The reliability was superb, and the outcome exceeded the band's wildest expectations. A unique airline, for a unique experience. Astraeus Airlines made it happen."

Dickinson and Maiden's plane tour was documented in the film 'Iron Maiden: Flight 666.'